State troopers have dramatically stepped up their efforts to quickly clear crashes on Interstate 25 east of Fort Collins, hoping to speed commutes and the flow of commerce.

“We’ve told troopers they have push bars on their cars. Use them. Push that thing out of the road and get traffic moving again,” said Sgt. Bart Trippel of the Fort Collins-based 3C Troop of the Colorado State Patrol. “Timing and movement of goods and services is down to a science. And we’re part of that. If we plug up the interstate, we’re interrupting that whole flow.”

The effort comes as state highway engineers struggle to keep traffic moving on Interstate 25 as Northern Colorado grows. Plans are in the works for a regional bus service to Denver, improved commuter van services and even toll lanes, if highway officials can figure out how to pay for them.

In Larimer County, I-25 serves both as a local road for commuters moving around Northern Colorado, southern Wyoming and Denver, and also as a critical throughway for freight traveling around the country. But as traffic volumes increase, so too have delays on the road. Those delays can quickly cascade: one crash leads to another when drivers slam on their brakes.

The importance of I-25’s free flow was brought home for many Northern Colorado residents last Saturday when a 54-vehicle pileup closed the interstate for hours. Colorado State University graduate student Kristin Klohonatz found that out the hard way when she got stuck on the interstate for two hours after flying into DIA and heading home.

“I didn’t have any options at that point to take a different route so I had to just wait through the traffic,” Klohonatz said. “Overall the usual one-hour car drive ended up taking about four hours for me on Saturday.”

Trippel said troopers are being reminded of the importance of clearing routine crashes quickly, and have improved their partnerships with tow truck drivers, CDOT and local police departments so they can more quickly divert traffic off the interstate when there’s a big crash. He said Saturday’s crash response was largely a success: “We towed 54 vehicles in roughtly 4 hours, and at the same time we mitigated a haz-mat situation and prevented a 10,000 gallon tanker from erupting.”

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Part of the problem for I-25, local experts say, is that Northern Colorado’s population growth is outpacing the current transportation system. A proposal being considered by the Colorado Department of Transportation envisions a phased approach to building projects totaling about $2 billion, including more general and tolled travel lanes on I-25, as well as express bus and commuter rail service from Fort Collins to downtown Denver.

The first phase of building would be done by 2035, if funding is available, and cost about $670 million. The second phase would stretch to 2055 and the third to 2075. Proposed elements in the first phase include adding a lane to I-25 between Mulberry Street and Colorado Highway 392, which is the Windsor exit, as well as securing right of way for commuter rail service along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad line.

Phase one also calls for establishing express bus service along Harmony Road, I-25 and U.S. Highway 85.

The study predicts that without improvements in the region’s transportation infrastructure, traffic congestion on I-25 would continue to slow travel time. By 2035, driving to Denver from Fort Collins would take 133 minutes. With the improvement, the drive would take 107 minutes while taking an express bus would take 77 minutes with stops and a nonstop trip would take 63 minutes.

Coloradoan reader Spencer Klein when he left the Fort Collins area in 1991, there were few traffic problems. But four years of commuting to Denver starting in 2008 after he returned to Fort Collins, Klein said he often saw multiple traffic jams every day.

“I never expected that Colorado would have Boston-grade traffic jams, but here we are. Unreal,” he said.

And Brandon Smith said that when he commuted between Loveland and Aurora every day for a year for a job, “there were some days I could make record time of one hour and 18 minutes each direction. There were other days that it took upwards of three hours and 21 minutes each direction and turned into a mess both ways. Over the year I saw northern I-25 go from no issues to getting stopped or slowing by Johnson’s Corner several times a week.”

Trippel said the increasing volume of traffic on I-25 — regional planners say the area’s population will double by 2035 — means troopers will be working harder and smarter to help keep cars and commerce flowing. He said troopers from 2004-2008 concentrated on reducing the number of crashes, particularly fatal crashes, by being particularly visible and by targeting aggressive drivers. He said that effort worked, and now the emphasis is on keeping the traffic moving effectively. That’s prompted changes such as waiting to pull people over until they reach an exit ramp.

“Anytime we turn lights on, we’re affecting flow. We don’t want to back up traffic on I-25 and cause more crashes,” Trippel said. “Everybody understands that the infrastructure is not sized to keep with the population. But it takes a long time to build. So until we have that infrastructure in place, you have to be able to manage it.”